Hi everyone,

I'm a new user and I'm so glad that I found this forum to get some good honest advice. Here's a quick background:

We own a 2007 GS450h with most of the available options. Have had no issues with it during the past 4 years and just went over 30k miles. About 2 months ago, we took it to a local dealer to get the 30k maintenance done, and they did whatever it is that they do, and gave the car back to us the next day.

When I drove it, however, I immediately noticed a grating noise in the back when I did sharp turns. The sound was a dull one, but almost like metal rubbing on metal. There was another, very slight rattling noise coming from the front. Very hard to tell where the noises were coming from, but it sounded like the wheel bases to me (in the drivers seat). My wife took the car back to the dealer that week, they couldn't hear the noise. A week later, the noises got worse, so my wife took it back in again and this time they said the back noise was just the sway bar doing its thing (i.e. everything was normal). I didn't really believe them, because I had never heard that noise before. Another month or two went by, and now the noise got louder, and it sounded like it's coming from the front. On top of that, there was a squeaky noise (almost like leather on leather) when the car hits a bump. Now my wife was also convinced that there's something wrong and took it back to the dealer. After almost a week, comes the bad news - the dealer says there's something wrong with our APSSS. Apparently the motor died and that it was going to be a $5k repair.

So my questions are:

1. Could this all be related to the 30k maintenance? The timing is so suspicious because the noises started the day after I got my car back.
2. If the APSSS motor died, why was there no dashboard light?
3. Can all the noises I heard ("back metal rubbing", "front metal rubbing", "leather squeaking") be explained by a failed APSSS motor?
4. Is $5k reasonable? I could swear this entire option was only something like $3k.
5. What the heck should I do at this point?

Mucho thanks in advance for any suggestions/help!

NW

 

id buy the extended lexus warranty from https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...nty-found.html for a quarter of that repair and get it fixed free under warranty!

 

Can you still do it after the fact? If not:

Robbie: [takes a deep breath, sighs] Gee, you know that information... really would've been more useful to me *yesterday.*

 

sorry to hear about your problems. it's certainly possible that it can cost $5K to fix apsss (parts, labour, sales tax). IF indeed apsss is broken, you definitely need to get that fixed asap. it's not safe to drive with broken suspension components.

to save money: find out how much it costs to buy your apsss parts from your dealer. then source out the exact same components at sewell lexus. sewell lexus is known for their good pricing on oem parts. if its cheaper to buy from sewell, do so. then just have your dealer supply the labour to repair it.

another alternative is to have your GSh towed to a different dealership and ask for a 2nd opinion. do a search and see what dealership is given high reviews for their commitment to service excellence.

good luck with what you decide. keep us updated, looking forward to hearing how this all turns out at the end.

 

Hi all,

Quick update. So last week the Lexus dealership called my wife, and since we have been such a good customer of theirs over the years (you know, we've done a 30k maintenance and a few recall things with them), they offered to take care of all the equipment cost and just charge us for the labor (a few hundred $).

Despite my obvious suspicions, we decided to just let it go and agree to it.

Still no clue on what caused the problem and probably never will. Oh well.